Patients infected with Ebola or suspected of it are fleeing treatment centers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo due to lack of food and poor conditions, Bloomberg reports.
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Earlier, DR Congo’s Minister of Health, Samuel Roger Kamba, announced that the death toll from Ebola in the country had exceeded 230, and the number of confirmed cases was approaching 900.
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“In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ebola patients are fleeing treatment centers in search of food, which underscores how hunger has become one of the main obstacles to containing the virus,” the agency writes.
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It is noted that since the end of May, government reports have recorded more than 150 escapes from fever centers. At the same time, there is at least one known case in which 11 patients with suspected Ebola escaped from quarantine due to malnutrition. Other reports have attributed patient escapes to food shortages and poor accommodation conditions.
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Bloomberg recalls that even before the outbreak of the Ebola epidemic, the eastern part of DR Congo was struggling with massive population displacement, conflict and massive famine. The food shortage problem affects almost 10 million people in the eastern provinces of the country.
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WHO has recognized the Ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda as an emergency and a danger to other countries. WHO assesses the regional risk of the virus spreading as high.
